Cloning is great for learning, but I do agree that you should not publish an exact clone of another persons game. I do however encourage spin-offs as they can add something new and positve to the users experience. For example, 2048 was actually a spin-off of the not quite as popular game "Threes!". I tried both games and I enjoyed 2048 so much more!
That's just how I see it, but everyone has different opinions.
@raycur09 said:
Im fairly new to being a pro user, but for a while now all i see in the forums is " template of this" or "template of that".It boggled my mind for the longest as to why this is allowed . . .
Agreed, although plagiarism happens in pretty much every walk of life to some degree, music, fashion, technology and so on, rarely is it so endemic and so accepted as in mobile gaming, it's become part of the culture now, it's seen as perfectly acceptable - normal even - to wholesale steal someone else's work, right down to the font, and sell it on the open market to absolutely anyone who wants to throw together a rip-off and cash in on your hard work, your creativity, your ideas, your design, your characters, months, perhaps even years, of hard work, sleepless nights, financial investment in artwork, music, illustrations (and so on) . . . people seem to feel zero compunction in simply helping themselves to other people's work, some even making a bussiness of it.
In any other trade this kind of thing would attract dawn raids from the local police and a court case. And of course this predominantly effects indie games makers, lager companies have the time, legal budget (and perhpas connections at Apple) to fight people helping themselves to their IP, indie games makers will, with their limited resources, fair less well. And I am going to guess this impacts on platforms like GameSalad much more than platforms like Unity, as it tends to be easier to rush out a rip-off of a 2D game rather than one pieced together with a 3D engine.
and its also the reason why i would never post my creations on this forums.
Yep, agreed, it's probably not a great idea, besides GS users themselves other people outside of GameSalad are, of course, free to browse the forums, in a culture that sees the stealing of other people's work as perfectly normal it's perhaps wise to keep your ideas to yourself, I don't share a lot of stuff about anything I might be working on.
@raycur09 said:
It gives gamesalad a bad name to allow such practices if you ask me.
Maybe so, but it's a little unfair on GS, it really is an industry wide issue, if I were to blame anyone I would say the three main culprits were the scammers themselves (of course!), the template makers fuelling the market in rip-offs and Google/Apple for having such a lax vetting procedure.
@raycur09 said:
As a developer, why would you support ripping off and cloning games?
$
@raycur09 said:
I won't even say what i think about the parties/websites responsible for using these tactics for profit.
I suspect this whole culture of cloning, copying and outright theft is perhaps more of a disaster for the indie games world than people might think, when the ability to reliably hold onto IP is eroded and the ability to profit from your creative endeavours is removed, or at least reduced to the point where it's not viable, then people will be less inclined to put time and effort into original ideas only to see others profit from their cloned rip-offs, the App market is not, of course, going to disappear, but I suspect the dynamic will change if this culture is not challenged, I can see the mobile games market slowly drifting towards the larger more established games companies, if you can protect your IP then investment in that IP is worthwhile, if you can't then you need to work through a company that can do that for you and your game (one of the larger games companies) - who knows, maybe in a few years we will look back on the first 4 or 5 years of the App Store (and the first 4 or 5 years mobile gaming market in general) as a kind of golden period where it was viable to develop and self publish your games, when indie game making could - given a well made game - be a viable career choice, when contrasted with the increasingly cavalier attitude to (other people's) intellectual property, and by then it might be standard practice to approach not the App Store reviewers with your new game, but a kind of app clearing house or one of the larger games companies.
@gingagaming said:
To be honest and opening a massive tin of worms Socks are you EVER HAPPY? All you do is bloody moan! !
Lol.
I suspect I've touched a nerve.
But . . . to the question, am I every happy ? (capitalised for drama ! ), well the short answer is yes, I can't put an exact figure on it, but I would say I am as happy as most people, if you read through my posts I'd say most are fairly free of suicidal yearnings
Like I say, I suspect I've just touched a nerve, but others might have spotted the ad hominem in lieu of a decent argument against any of the points I've put forward.
Interesting if you search "Swing Copters" on the store you only get what you see below, and yes thats my "Steam Jack". my game was waiting for review when the news of this game hit so I added the keywords swing copters.lol. but heres the thing I also have a game called Martian Flapper Bird and it to was waiting for review, so I added the same keywords and now there gone Apple removed them because it was showing up in this search before.
and yes thats my "Steam Jack". my game was waiting for review when the news of this game hit so I added the keywords swing copters.lol.
Cunning ! lol. You should have stuck a propeller on his head
@BBEnk said:
but heres the thing I also have a game called Martian Flapper Bird and it to was waiting for review, so I added the same keywords and now there gone Apple removed them because it was showing up in this search before.
I don't post my games here at all. I rather miss out on about a few downloads than let people be able to clone them.
I regularly look at the sites of templates and see what game are being cloned. Then I write nice letter to the orginal developer with links and the video in action to show what's happening.
They are angry as anything. But in recent years they couldn't do anything. But now more and more people are giving heads up and I suspect there is going to be some sort of action happening. From my experience Gamesalad is known to many developers, not so much for its game engine, but for the place where cloning is most likely.
Haters are going to hate, but you only do that when you know your in the wrong. I am still waiting to talk to the folks at firemint. They are a big company and i am slowly moving up the ladder to talk to some serious people.
Comments
Cloning is great for learning, but I do agree that you should not publish an exact clone of another persons game. I do however encourage spin-offs as they can add something new and positve to the users experience. For example, 2048 was actually a spin-off of the not quite as popular game "Threes!". I tried both games and I enjoyed 2048 so much more!
That's just how I see it, but everyone has different opinions.
To be honest and opening a massive tin of worms @Socks are you EVER HAPPY? All you do is bloody moan!
GAMESALAD DEV FOR HIRE! - www.gingagaming.com
Agreed, although plagiarism happens in pretty much every walk of life to some degree, music, fashion, technology and so on, rarely is it so endemic and so accepted as in mobile gaming, it's become part of the culture now, it's seen as perfectly acceptable - normal even - to wholesale steal someone else's work, right down to the font, and sell it on the open market to absolutely anyone who wants to throw together a rip-off and cash in on your hard work, your creativity, your ideas, your design, your characters, months, perhaps even years, of hard work, sleepless nights, financial investment in artwork, music, illustrations (and so on) . . . people seem to feel zero compunction in simply helping themselves to other people's work, some even making a bussiness of it.
In any other trade this kind of thing would attract dawn raids from the local police and a court case. And of course this predominantly effects indie games makers, lager companies have the time, legal budget (and perhpas connections at Apple) to fight people helping themselves to their IP, indie games makers will, with their limited resources, fair less well. And I am going to guess this impacts on platforms like GameSalad much more than platforms like Unity, as it tends to be easier to rush out a rip-off of a 2D game rather than one pieced together with a 3D engine.
and its also the reason why i would never post my creations on this forums.
Yep, agreed, it's probably not a great idea, besides GS users themselves other people outside of GameSalad are, of course, free to browse the forums, in a culture that sees the stealing of other people's work as perfectly normal it's perhaps wise to keep your ideas to yourself, I don't share a lot of stuff about anything I might be working on.
Maybe so, but it's a little unfair on GS, it really is an industry wide issue, if I were to blame anyone I would say the three main culprits were the scammers themselves (of course!), the template makers fuelling the market in rip-offs and Google/Apple for having such a lax vetting procedure.
$
I suspect this whole culture of cloning, copying and outright theft is perhaps more of a disaster for the indie games world than people might think, when the ability to reliably hold onto IP is eroded and the ability to profit from your creative endeavours is removed, or at least reduced to the point where it's not viable, then people will be less inclined to put time and effort into original ideas only to see others profit from their cloned rip-offs, the App market is not, of course, going to disappear, but I suspect the dynamic will change if this culture is not challenged, I can see the mobile games market slowly drifting towards the larger more established games companies, if you can protect your IP then investment in that IP is worthwhile, if you can't then you need to work through a company that can do that for you and your game (one of the larger games companies) - who knows, maybe in a few years we will look back on the first 4 or 5 years of the App Store (and the first 4 or 5 years mobile gaming market in general) as a kind of golden period where it was viable to develop and self publish your games, when indie game making could - given a well made game - be a viable career choice, when contrasted with the increasingly cavalier attitude to (other people's) intellectual property, and by then it might be standard practice to approach not the App Store reviewers with your new game, but a kind of app clearing house or one of the larger games companies.
Lol.
I suspect I've touched a nerve.
But . . . to the question, am I every happy ? (capitalised for drama !
), well the short answer is yes, I can't put an exact figure on it, but I would say I am as happy as most people, if you read through my posts I'd say most are fairly free of suicidal yearnings 
Like I say, I suspect I've just touched a nerve, but others might have spotted the ad hominem in lieu of a decent argument against any of the points I've put forward.
Interesting if you search "Swing Copters" on the store you only get what you see below, and yes thats my "Steam Jack". my game was waiting for review when the news of this game hit so I added the keywords swing copters.lol. but heres the thing I also have a game called Martian Flapper Bird and it to was waiting for review, so I added the same keywords and now there gone Apple removed them because it was showing up in this search before.
Yep, thankfully Google and the App Store seem to be dealing with the issue, if only just for the this one app, but it's a welcome sight.
and yes thats my "Steam Jack". my game was waiting for review when the news of this game hit so I added the keywords swing copters.lol.
The purge has begun !
I don't post my games here at all. I rather miss out on about a few downloads than let people be able to clone them.
I regularly look at the sites of templates and see what game are being cloned. Then I write nice letter to the orginal developer with links and the video in action to show what's happening.
They are angry as anything. But in recent years they couldn't do anything. But now more and more people are giving heads up and I suspect there is going to be some sort of action happening. From my experience Gamesalad is known to many developers, not so much for its game engine, but for the place where cloning is most likely.
Haters are going to hate, but you only do that when you know your in the wrong. I am still waiting to talk to the folks at firemint. They are a big company and i am slowly moving up the ladder to talk to some serious people.
google play has a wipe of Swing copter clones
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